Access to NHS Services

Part of Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 5:18 pm on 3 July 2007.

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Photo of Andrew Tyrie Andrew Tyrie Conservative, Chichester 5:18, 3 July 2007

I am glad that the Secretary of State has moved off his partisan opening remarks. What relevance does the White Paper "The Governance of Britain", which the Prime Minister has just announced, have for my constituents, 140,000 of whom signed a petition complaining about the threat to St. Richard's hospital in Chichester, which has existed for nearly two years? They just do not recognise the picture that the Secretary of State is painting. Will he say specifically whether my local community, which has

"tended to be seen as passive recipients of services", will be given the power to take decisions, and whether, for example, it will be allowed to use the mechanism of citizens juries to influence the decision on whether that hospital should be closed or reconfigured? Does this document have any meaning at all for my constituents and those who want to keep St. Richard's?